Resources

Cold Gases

Background

At room temperatures the behavior of a gas of atoms is dominated by their random thermal motion.
Averaged over time this gives simple descriptions in terms of thermodynamic variables
such as Temperature and Pressure. As the temperature is lowered, this thermal motion is reduced. The
Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents the atoms from coming to a stop. Instead, at nanokelvin temperatures,
quantum mechanics dictates the properties of these atomic gases. We study this strange and beautiful form of quantum matter.

For some of our underlying motivations, please see essays written by individual group members:

JILA [formerly the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics -- a collaboration between NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) and the University of Colorado)] has one of the highest concentrations of cold gas research in the country.

Randy Hulet runs one of the premier cold atoms experimental groups from Rice University in Texas

Georgia Southern University used to maintain a list of the laboratories which have acheived Bose-Einstein condensation. They had links to press releases, upcoming conferences, and articles on ultracold gases. Seems to have fallen out of repair lately.

Online BEC bibliography (GSU): An encylopedic list of all preprints (and some published articles) on cold atoms since 1996. Its out of date, and is a little large, but may still be a useful resource.